This ones a Doozy

I don't quite now how to start this post, I have one million things I want to say about my brother and his family and yet I have no clue what to write. 

Isaac and Lesley have truly become some of my very best friends. I like to joke that their house makes me sleepy, I think that is because I feel so at home there, I almost want to take off my pants and take a nap, ha! Seriously though, I always tell myself I will only stay a certain amount of time and then I stay 4 hours longer. Words can't say how sad I am to see them move to Arizona. 

I know it is a good move for their family, that is will be for the best and that everyone will be just fine but geez! I hate it! 

I would have never guessed growing up that I would end up having such a close relationship with my brother, I look up to him so much. He is the best friend, teacher, dad and a wonderful support system to me. I will miss him being so close. 

Lesley is everything you want in a sister in law, sweet, excepting, loving and a true friend. I am so lucky to have her in my life. 

Be kind to them Arizona, you have no idea how lucky you are to have them. 

The Happs.

 Would you look at this six month old cutie?? Do not be fooled though, that outfit is all 0-3 months. What??!!

 A little tradition Deacon I have started, an ice cream cone on the hammock after dinner. Also, please take note of my perfectly painted nail, news years resolution going strong!

 Summertime wardrobe, cuttoffs and a tee shirt, also a summertime staple: a mid afternoon nap when it is too hot to do anything else.

 I promise Deacon is actually very happy about the Bucket list. We are having a blast checking things off. We added some big, fun (expensive!) things to our list, we are hoping our daddy wants to do them.(Disneyland!)

 Just so you do not think Gwennie is the perfect baby, I remember this night, she was pissssssed.

The picture equal parts delights and terrifies me, Deacon LOVES to pick her up and make her stand. No one and nothing makes her face light up like her beloved Deacon.

And there ya have it, the Leasure family happenings.

Lately

SO many things to report! Here is the family rundown: Deacon: Started kindergarten, what! I know! It came too soon for me too but he loves it. The morning of his first day I made him pancakes and cried my eyes out when I realized that I will never get him to myself all day everyday again. I am so so thankful that I have had the chance to be with him so much. He really is my best friend and a sweet boy. He also went on a trip to me Louisiana to visit my Dad and Dana, we did so many things. I also learned that he is a lego prodigy when it took me two full hours to put together a 65 piece lego set and it took him twenty minutes. He spends all his spare time wiggling his first loose tooth. Someone please stop time.

Curtis: Is SO crazy. One of the things I love about him is his confidence and desire to learn new things. He took on the project of re-roofing our house, he has youtubed, read online, picked brains and enlisted advice from every Home Depot employee and in the process learned how to roof saving us oh, 10 grand or so. Our house is a nightmare right now but I am so proud of him. I love Curtis. He felt baby girl kick last night and it was so awesome. He is also playing Fantasy Football in more leagues than I should know about and trying to finish this roof project mainly so NFL Sunday ticket can be back up and running. He is also the best trip deal finder on the planet earth. I am so glad he knows how happy it makes me to go visit my Dad and Dana and is always looking for ways to make that happen for me.

Me: I can not believe it is already mid September and I do not have my Halloween decor up yet! I told my friend Lindsay and she said "you are like two months late!" she knows me well. I had a great summer, fun youth conference at Utah State, Girls camp, Disneyland, trip to Island Park with my oldest, best girlfriends, Louisiana and a Vegas trip in the future. Got to get my travels out of my system before I am homebound for awhile. I am still working at Shabby Apple which is fun. I am getting really excited to decorate a nursery and also for Christmas! I am really looking forward to bringing a new baby home to a cozy Christmas bungalow. I love my little old house and I love it more with each improvement we make. I could honestly stay here forever.

Babe: Is growing and growing with my huge belly as evidence. Has already made our family so happy. Deacon loves to tell me all the brilliant names he thinks we should use, my favorites? Linda, Tyla, Syla, Sally and Felicia. What do you guys think? Linda Leasure? I sometimes still can not believe that I get to care for another baby. I learned so much about prayer these last couple years. I also learned that I am NEVER alone, never. I can not wait until this baby is old enough that I can explain how loved and wanted she is.

Beach bums and Beach babes

While in California it was 90 degrees in November, so we headed to the beach. We all loved it. We went to Corona Del Mar and it was one of my favorite beaches I have been to, when talking to my mom I guess I have been there a bunch of times before but it felt new and exciting to me! Nobody was prepared with a full on swimsuit besides Deacon, he sure took advantage of that! He loved the ocean.
Totally fearless, ran right in and got his whole body and head totally wet.
Loving the waves.
Curtis and Deacon in the distance, a beautiful beach.
The family posing for a picture.
The cave where we had our little picnic. I saw far to many crabs in that cave for my liking. Can you tell Deacon loved the beach?
Kira and Deacon running from the waves, love this picture.
Another family shot, what a perfect beach day.

Pumpkin Patch!

The pumpkin patch today was a hit. Curt and I were laughing because right when we got there Deacon ran from pumpkin to pumpkin saying "this one? noooooo!" He did however did find several he loved.

Deacon and Will loved Isaac running with the in the wheel barrow. Cloud nine I am tellin ya.

The gray green pumpkin is the one I fell in love with and brought home, I think it looks excellent on my porch.

Isaac Lesley Will and the new baby Van.

And then our little family. This weather we are having is fantastic. I do not think I have ever enjoyed Fall festivities like I have this year. I plan to continue on enjoying Fall as long as possible.

Want to know the best part of the Pumpkin patch extravaganza? I am trying to convince Curt that we should not give Christmas gifts this year and go to Disneyland instead. Deacon is old enough to enjoy it and young enough to not care if he only gets a couple small things Christmas morning. So all weekend long I have been talking about Disneyland telling Deacon about rides and so on. So naturally he thought that THE PUMPKIN PATCH WAS DISNEYLAND! He thought since we had talked about is so much that we were going there. If we ever do make it to Disneyland this kid will be blown away.

The Cabin

Isaac and Grandma with the kids at Big springs.
I love this picture because it really depicts the dynamic between Deacon and Will. Will adores Deacon and thinks he is so funny, look at him laughing at whatever nonsense Deacon is up to.
Speaking of Will, he is at the best age, so funny and cute and usually always in a good mood.
The kids playing and eating some grapes.
Deacon at Big springs.
This is my favorite hour I spent at the cabin. It was a huge rainstorm and The kids all cuddles up to me and Deacon falls asleep, that never happens.
This also never happens, Isaac and I sitting next to each other at meal time. It is a long standing tradition that we sit miles away from each other at meals, we broke barriers that weekend.
This is at the paint pots, which for the record are not awesome.
The kids getting a little impatient waiting for Old Faithful.
One morning I went running and Deacon was sad when Lesley and Amelia told him where I went and he kept saying " I wanna go for a run!" So for the rest of the weekend I would take him outside for a run. He would walk for a minute and then say to me "Lets go for a run!" run for thirty seconds and then say " I a good runner! Lets walk today. We can run amorrow." Pretty cute.


A highlight of my summers is visiting our family cabin in Idaho. Pulling in to the dirt road always makes me happy. This trip to the cabin was even better because the Scots came! It was a mad house jam packed with fun. I was so glad I got to go and had so much fun laughing and hanging out with my family. Especially loves almost making Amelia pee her pants from laughing so hard.

Summer

My sister and her family have been visiting form Scotland for the past three weeks. They just left this morning and I feel lonely. The past few weeks have been total chaos and so much fun. Not much brings me the kind of joy that watching Deacon play with his cousins brings me. I realized I did not take enough pictures I think I was just trying to have as much fun as possible. Anyhow the above picture pretty much sums up our time together, awesome.

Some serious cute

While my sister and her family have been in town we had to get some Bickmore grandkid pictures. I love them so much. Of course Angie took them. I am so happy to have these pictures of these darling kids. It was quite a process and I am glad its over and we have these to show for it, TADA!

Another year older and wiser too!

that is a Bickmore smile if I ever saw one

Happy Birthday to you! Today is my dads big 55. I don't think you want me to list 55 awesome things about him (I could though) so I will just go with 5 things.

1. He is such a good grandpa, loves his grand kids and dotes on them. They in turn adore him.
2. My Dad is very smart and a hard worker. Whenever I meet someone he works with they always rave about how great he is at what he does.
3. My dad is funny and likes to have fun even though sometimes he pretends to be grumpy even when he is not.
4. People love my dad and he really goes out of his way to befriend people and make them feel included.
5. He has always set a good example for me in a lot of different ways and I admire him for always trying to do what he believes to be right and good.
So five cheers for you dad, hip hip hip hip Hooray! Love you!

The even tof the Summer

I can not get over how funny this picture of Deacon "shooshing" Curt before the movie had even started.
This may be one of the best pictures ever.
He seriously sat so quiet and still for the full half hour we sat in the theater before the movie started.
Me and Deacon waiting in line before we went in to the theater.
He really wanted to climb this more than pose by it. I love that it is a big 3 since that is just what Deacon is.
He needed to sit on his Dads lap for the last few minutes.
Isaac Lesley and Will came with us. In the last minutes when Deacon was sitting on Curt's lap I heard him saying " that's my friend Will!" It made me so happy.
Of course he had to bring his very favorite Woody and Buzz that Laura bought him for his birthday. Seriously he has not parted with those two since she gave them to him over a month ago. We loved the movie it was adorable of course. Although I can not help but feel just a tiny bit sad that it was the last one, just a tiny. And do not laugh if I tell you I cried.